Advertisement
Published: November 7th 2012
Golden Temple
View on entering the area - building under the Buddha is a museum.Spent the afternoon at the cave temples at Dambulla. Reading Lonely Planet on the way there I was expecting a series of caves somewhere in the hills - open and exposed - and it was still raining. So I wasn't really looking forward to getting out and about exploring in the rain for another day.
Pulling into the parking area we were confronted with a rather garish large Golden Buddha (30m high aparently) sitting on top of a museum. The area around it also contained a restaurant and their own Buddist Radio station - looked more like a Disneyland-type venue complete with fake concrete rocks and a long line of new fake-looking images.
However, what a surprise (and I have left my camera in the car...).....again umbrellas up and start walking up the rock face behind all this glitz.
There is not much I can say about these caves - the history and age of them is a little confusing - depends which book you read - but there about 150 Buddha images in this complex and it has obviously been a place of worship for many years.
Cave 1: The Temple of the King of the
Golden Temple
area to the left of the Golden Buddha - fake rocks and all... Gods has a 15m-long reclining Buddha. It is only a small cave and also has a statue of Vishnu but it was not on display when we were there.
Cave 2: The Temple of the Great King is the largest cave in the complex measuring 52m from east to west and 23m from the entrance to the back wall and the highest point of the ceiling is 7m.
This cave is named after the two statues of kings it contains. There are also Hindu dietes in this cave. A large pot inside the cave collects water that constantly drips from the ceiling of the temple - even during droughts.....this water is collected and used for sacred rituals.
Cave 3: The New Great Temple is also filled with Buddha statues including a reclining Buddha.
Cave 4: Probably the smallest cave containing more Buddha figures and a small dagoba in the centre of the cave.
Cave 5: This cave is the newest cave in the complex and contains a reclining Buddha, Hindu deities and Vishnu is also present.
We walked back down to our waiting car in silence - another unexpected surprise from Sri Lanka -
View on the walk up to the caves
On the way back down it was completely covered by mist and fog. however I did jump sideways when a guy jumped up with his round woven basket, lifted the lid and there was a cobra.......I'm always wary of guys with round woven baskets since travelling in India....when will people learn that some tourists just don't like having snakes thrust into their faces.....could give a girl a heart attack.....well, makes my heart work a lot harder for a few minutes I know that.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0547s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
merri Hogan
non-member comment
Buddhist caves
Buddhist caves are extraordinary special places. I remember the ones at Elloura in India - just stunningly beautiful and full of peace.